My wife and I differ in many ways. She thrives on social interaction and I thrive on solitude. Im sure many of you guys struggle with women in that sometime you just want to take off for a few days and go camping..... and what's wrong with that?

My wife understands this about me and she struggles with it but because she loves me, she doesn't question it when once or twice a year I've got to just take off..... this was one of those weekends.
For me work has been really tough as the place I helped build starts to designate in front of my eyes through stupid decisions in management. This adding on to the fact that the wife and I are about to have our first child.....

needless to say it was time to get on the bike.

At 5am with all my crap loaded, I took off, headed towards the Sequoia National Park

one of the big things that sucks about living in Los Angeles, it that it's Los Angeles. Normally these roads are a parking lot.... not at 5.30am on a Saturday...... foggy and cold, I push out of the city

slowly the concrete canyons give way to concrete B roads.....

after nearly an hour on the bike......

............... AAAhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.... thats better.

I navigate more and more canyon roads that lead me away from the hell that is where I live and onto the first dirt section near the desert

looking towards Lancaster and the Mojave desert

I make it across the basin, through the wind farms and over through Tehachapi

for those of you that dont know, Tehachapi is like California's train set. All the train lover flock here from all over

Through Tehachapi and onto Caliente-Bodfish for the real start of the ride......

when it looks like this up ahead you know it's not going to suck

breakfast at the local joint in Kernville where I Saw the cleanest 650R in the history of man

I asked the guy how he liked his 650R and he said something to the effect of "Oh no....this is a 705R" or something like that....

home of many giant Sequoias...... and if they fall, when they hit the ground, they shatter

gorgeous piece of road

the office for the weekend

Finally caught up to to this guy.... who was hauling balls

I followed him for awhile.... he was probably wondering why but I noticed he was an ADV

at three rivers he finally pulled off and I introduced myself. He was a super nice guy and he gave me his card. Now I need to FIND that card so I can PM him....

onward and upward!

I stopped for a sandwich and some firewood in Three Rivers

The campsite that I was trying to find was supposedly at the end of this long road.... turned out to be nearly TWO HOURS of climbing a one lane road....

it was 97 degrees and the climb was rather steep. The GS had my fat ass on it, firewood, tools, oil, water, camping gear...... and the bike was getting really hot so I had to pull off a few times to let it cool.

it gets more amazing as you go up.....

I stopped at Silver City for a snack - cool little spot!

moving on, closer to the campsite

I had been told about the walk in camping and that it was more remote so I went for that. Lugging my crap in wasnt fun but being alone was nice

Deer everywhere

Its not so much a camp site as it is just forest

and its right on a creek as well

I lit the fire and started to drink.....then things got weird with the camera

After about 400 miles on the bike I was tired and was looking forward to a good sleep. Waking up in the morning was nice.... good tent view!

Ill post up about day two probably tomorrow.....

cheers

__________________
We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
T. S. Eliot

Quote:

Originally Posted by Burnszilla

I was SO high, I could have hunted duck with a rake

Quote:

Originally Posted by VxZeroKnots

MX stuff isn't my cup of tea, but falling down the side of a mountain is

How are you taking pictures while riding?? I'm picturing you following that other ADV rider that you came across and juggling a point-and-shoot while trying to catch up to him... it doesn't seem advisable haha. I'm used to a sportbike though, no experience with an adventure bike, so maybe it's a lot easier than I'm imagining...

How are you taking pictures while riding?? I'm picturing you following that other ADV rider that you came across and juggling a point-and-shoot while trying to catch up to him... it doesn't seem advisable haha. I'm used to a sportbike though, no experience with an adventure bike, so maybe it's a lot easier than I'm imagining...

-Ryan

It does take practice but once you get it down, it's easy. I always use a lanyard for the camera and it's either around my neck and the camera lives in my jacket, or when its cold, I lanyard the camera to the tankbag and just keep it in the little side pocket so it always right there when I need it.
Operation is just with the left hand and again with a little practice, pretty easy

__________________
We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
T. S. Eliot

Quote:

Originally Posted by Burnszilla

I was SO high, I could have hunted duck with a rake

Quote:

Originally Posted by VxZeroKnots

MX stuff isn't my cup of tea, but falling down the side of a mountain is

I slept pretty well that night surprisingly because Im sure most of us, the first night back camping again there is lots of tossing and turning. I get some of the best sleep in my life about two weeks into a good bike trip. Having said that, I woke up at 5am thinking it was about 8 and packed everything and headed to the bike.
By the time the bike was mostly packed I realized it was only about 6 - not that it really mattered, it just meant that I had a few more hours to rub together than I had figured on...... it was time!

these were the only seqoia's I got pictures of. The rest of them just look like a picture of bark, or bits of the top of a tree that ends 300 feet above me....so

back down to the bottom of the hill and the bridge again

somebodies dream house on the way down....

after this, Im out of the mountains and into the armpit of the state..... the central basin. This is what it all looks like. There's only one picture because it all looks the same; Oildale, Bakersfield, Visallia, Frenso et al

however 198 turned out to be a fabulous road....

There is ALWAYS something that I've been wanting to do since I started riding. I've always heard about this Military base that you can drive across on the way between the 101 freeway and Big Sur..... This was the day that I was going to get to do it!
Luckily I didn't take any pictures at all..... I did however see a BALD EAGLE in the air on the base and it got me wonder whether they just have them on the base at all times. why not?
anyways, here are some pics of the base I found just for continuity purposes.

supposedly there is an old mission around somewhere as well....

anyways, I suck.

moving on....

as quickly as you ride onto the base, you're off the base and it gives way to a bunch of campsites and hippies

__________________
We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
T. S. Eliot

Quote:

Originally Posted by Burnszilla

I was SO high, I could have hunted duck with a rake

Quote:

Originally Posted by VxZeroKnots

MX stuff isn't my cup of tea, but falling down the side of a mountain is